Blueberry Bubblegum Dtw

[Savage Henry]

Medium: botanicare aeration mix

Pot size: #3

Lighting: 3kw hps (old discount bulbs)

Fertilizer: jacks hydro, yara calnit, agsil, ferti-organic powdered fulvic acid, Epsom

Irrigating with 2gph drip emitters attached to diy drip rings.

Co2

Pic is of the room last night after I got it all set up, the plants last day of 18/6. I beat em up pretty good, topped em, lollipopped em, bent and broke em a bit, so they look a little mopey.

They had been getting fed pretty heavy the last week or so and were a bit too crowded in the veg room to use all of it so I diluted the Rez down from 1.6 ec to 0.9 and set the timer to run for 14 min while I slept last night. We'll see how the runoff looks today.

I know the ceiling is a bit low, im going to use this run to build on my trellising/training skill set.

Got the inspiration for the diy drain trays from @Smokey503ski

 

[Smokey503ski]

Looking good.

 

[3N1GM4]

You are auto watering dtw in dirt?

 

[Savage Henry]

Naw, it's a coco/perlite mix

 

[Savage Henry]

Yesterday was day 1 of 12/12, the ladies perked up a bit, I flushed em with 0.9ec till the runoff was 1.5, then 0.5 ec and last I checked the runoff was 1.0. Been checking by placing a cup under the drain gutter and collecting some runoff, so it's basically an average from all the plants.

I had been feeding them with 3g/gal jacks, 2.25 calnit and 1.25 magnesium sulphate (Epsom) plus sil and fulvic, based on a schedule a guy put on here a while back. Really quick growth with this but they got real lanky on me. Maybe too much N, maybe a lack of sufficient airflow in veg, but either way they got a bit too dark green for my liking, so tonight I'll mix the Rez with the ol' 3/2/1 standard.

The diy drip rings aren't putting out water as evenly as I had pictured. I may build some more and put in like 18 holes instead of the 9 I put in originally.

Here's a pic from last night, the fan is definitely in the way, I'll try out another angle this evening.

 

[Savage Henry]

Yesterday was 12/12 day 2. Definitely perking up, as in branches bending for the light, definitely a good thing. The fan leaves are a bit droopy, I assume from going from one irrigation a day to two, also I need to bump up the timers to get a bit more runoff, it's at like 5% right now, so I think I'll up the timers from 8 min to 12.
Definitely need to rebuild the drip rings, I'll see if I can't find some time today.

Foliar' them this morning w/kelp, calcium 25, and yucca. Left the fans off for a couple hours to raise the rh and let some absorption set it before popping em back on so they're not still wet when the lights come on, have to watch that with the ca25. The triacontanol from the ca25 should get them over their growing pains.

Here's last nights pic:

 

[yesca]

Very clean setup! Will definitely need to check out the link on these trays. I built some similar rings and just punched 4 holes in them and use it without the inline limiters, also in #3's. I run them about 50 seconds for 10% run off using drip clean. Keep us posted on what you end up doing. I have also noticed in my setup that the plants downhill in my DTW system run off first. I am trying to find a way to even it out.

 

[Smokey503ski]

Really digging your setup.
I had issues with the home made drip rings also.
I went and bought a bunch of the Blackhole Hydro 1/2" rings.

They only have 6 holes I believe. But are watering evenly.
Do you have your main tubing connected as a circle with fittings coming off those? You really need to so you get even pressure.
If you put a end cap on the line you will get different pressure on some lines.

 

[Savage Henry]

Yesterday was day 3. Rebuilt the drip rings and added 32 holes in each, now their "spread" so to speak is pretty great here's how they look:

It's 1/4" line coming off the 3/4" main, into a 2gph pressure compensating drip emitter into the loop. This is a new approach for me, last few runs I had the drip lines setup like this:

The pc emitter was stuck in the main line with 1/4" coming off it, thru a valve, to a tee. The tiny valves are pretty ineffective to regulate flow, basically they're either on or off, turn em 45 degrees and they just cut the flow off.

The ladies are filling out well but still a bit droopier than I'd like, I for sure rushed the multi feeds so I dropped back to 1 feed/day for now, two hrs after lights on for 12 min.

@Smokey503ski i hear you about the loop, the last couple builds I did I ran the main in a loop and it worked well, trying an experiment with a straight line capped on the end this run. The logic behind this is the pc emitters should put out the same gph within a range of psi (these are 7-20 I believe). Thing is, I'm running a ghetto harbor freight submersible pump whose max psi is like 8 or so, I gotta switch it out for a little giant 5-msp which will put out a max of 11.4psi.

Or maybe I'll just make a loop, if I need to. I should pop all the emitters out of the rings, drop em in solo cups and run the pump for a minute to see if the output is even. If it's not then I'll prolly make the main loop, Cus now I can't stop thinking about it. Either way it needs done in the next week before everything fills out and it's a bitch to move around the room.

I've looked at those hydro rings before, I'm just super cheap these days.

@yesca check out smokeys grow log, that's where I got the idea.

Anyway, here's the day 3 pic. Leaf temps 75-78, no clue on the rh, just not running a dehuey right now, but I'd like it around 70% (I'll get off my ass and figure this out soon). [email protected], 1.5ec.

 

[Savage Henry]

Yesterday was day 8, growth has been progressing well, all the bends made pre-flip have knuckled.

Been irrigating 1x/day and the ladies are much happier. Ec going in @1.6 and out @1.0. A bit low but no signs of any issues, will do a slurry in the next couple days to double check how much they're eating.

Foliar and drench on Sunday with biowar tea (w/added alfalfa meal and kelp) the foliar was mixed with some yucca and 0.5ml/gal sea green.

Still bending the tops every couple days to keep the growth close to even. Trellis will go up early next week.

 

[Savage Henry]

Yesterday was day 11, gave them a foliar w/ca25, kelp, and yucca. Upped the irrigation to twice daily (10pm and 4am on an 8-8 schedule). And wouldn't ya know it, they finally started praying.

Gonna stop with the daily bending and leave them the hell alone until early next week when it's trellis time. This strain doesn't necessarily need one for support, it's more to help fill in the light footprint.

I definitely should have let these broads go for an additional week of 18/6 in this room before flipping them, and I'm starting to regret using plastic pots as I'm not getting the growth rates I've become accustomed to using geo pots. However they are finally transpirating like crazy and the rh in the room has shot up.

Here's last nights pic:

 

[JWB]

Nice.. lotsa growth for a few days.

 

[Savage Henry]

Thanks, finally hitting their stride. Shoulda waited for this moment before flipping but I had myself in rush mode for some reason.

 

[Savage Henry]

Trying something new tonight. Set the timer for 3 8min irrigation cycles at 10/1/4. Did a slurry test and it showed a 0.7ec reading. This is consistent with a runoff reading earlier this week of 0.9ec. The Rez is mixed at 1.4ec so rather than mix it hotter I'm going to try an additional cycle and overall shortening of the run times to produce less or no runoff and do another slurry test in a couple days.

 

[Savage Henry]

Makes sense, the new growth is looking hungry:

 

[Irie Farmer]

You are auto watering dtw in dirt?

Just wondering why that would be odd? That's what 99% of the foliage nurseries and tree farms do. Everything from hanging baskets to 3" Ivy. This method is the industry standard for greenhouses.

 

[3N1GM4]

It says you water twice daily, if this is true and you are watering every day twice a day I would think you would definitely get root rot. Watering twice a day in coco with 50% perlite is fine because it dries so quickly. Watering dirt twice a day will keep the roods waterlogged and turn them brown. Maybe I am just misunderstanding your watering tech? Do you let the soil dry, before turning back on the auto watering system?

 

[Irie Farmer]

Yesterday was day 11, gave them a foliar w/ca25, kelp, and yucca. Upped the irrigation to twice daily (10pm and 4am on an 8-8 schedule). And wouldn't ya know it, they finally started praying.

Gonna stop with the daily bending and leave them the hell alone until early next week when it's trellis time. This strain doesn't necessarily need one for support, it's more to help fill in the light footprint.

I definitely should have let these broads go for an additional week of 18/6 in this room before flipping them, and I'm starting to regret using plastic pots as I'm not getting the growth rates I've become accustomed to using geo pots. However they are finally transpirating like crazy and the rh in the room has shot up.

Here's last nights pic:View attachment 588872

I poke a bunch of small holes in any plastic pots I have to use and it's definitely helped achieve a similar effect as the fabric pots by root pruning and not holding moisture for too long. I'll never buy another plastic pot and phasing them out as I can. They work fantastically well with a flood and drain table too.

 

[Savage Henry]

Watering dirt twice a day will keep the roods waterlogged and turn them brown. Maybe I am just misunderstanding your watering tech? Do you let the soil dry, before turning back on the auto watering system?

The mix I'm using is coco/perlite/ewc with leonardite and yucca so not what one would consider soil, more of a soilless mix. I let em drink some then water the pots back to field capacity as even at full saturation the mixture retains 30-40% air.

If we were talking a clay-based soil then for sure, root rot would be an issue.

@Irie Farmer thats a good idea with the holes, I can picture how it would work. I've been using fabric pots for years, but I tried out plastic for this round to keep the root ball elevated from the runoff in order to avoid wet feet. Im thinking in the future I'll go back to fabric and use, say, clone trays, to keep them out of the runoff and get some air circulating beneath them. I'd like to start using fabric instead plastic pots for the early stages of veg as well.

 

[Irie Farmer]

It says you water twice daily, if this is true and you are watering every day twice a day I would think you would definitely get root rot. Watering twice a day in coco with 50% perlite is fine because it dries so quickly. Watering dirt twice a day will keep the roods waterlogged and turn them brown. Maybe I am just misunderstanding your watering tech? Do you let the soil dry, before turning back on the auto watering system?

The key is to not overwater, how you prevent this can be achieved by less frequency or less duration. I'm familiar with a doseatron which feeds an entire 100,000sq ft greenhouse if needed and you actually don't feed to runoff but only feed once a week usually and it may take a day or two, then back to water. If you're overwatering you'll notice quickly and reduce the amount. But you aren't filling the pot with water, just little sips and if you're using good nutrients salt buildup isn't a problem because you are watering so frequently. This method is very efficient and effective. Best, Irie.